Awaken Backs Down on "Campusgate"
But Coronado must remain vigilant and continue to point out this organization for what it really is...
After several weeks, the City of Coronado has stepped up and successfully demanded Awaken take down its false and misleading claims of operating a “campus” at our Coronado Community Center.
Quick Background: As part of its expressed mission of “taking territory” and calling its push into new communities “warfare,” Awaken has rented the community center twice to hold “services” and recruit new converts. It quickly put up several graphics on its website touting our center as their new “Coronado Campus.”
Aside from being completely untrue, why is this important?
Our community center is taxpayer-funded public property. It’s not affiliated with any religious or quasi-religious entity. No one has the right to claim it as their “campus” just because they’ve rented a room.
Awaken’s founder calls those of us who oppose him unholy, unclean, perverted demons and vows to run any naysayers out of town. Claiming that our community center was his campus after all that bully-bluster was seen as a slap in the face by many residents.
The community pushed back and began letting our City Council and City Manager know how they felt. Let’s call it “Campusgate.”
The council’s response was pretty lukewarm, except for Councilmember Mike Donovan who stepped up and spoke out against this nonsense. I’ve been told that Donovan worked with City Manager Tina Friend to have city staff lay down ground rules prohibiting Awaken from falsely advertising, promoting, or referencing our Community Center as its “campus.”
A few weeks went by without a response from Awaken. Then the city notified Awaken that their event scheduled for June would be canceled, and their money refunded if the references remained. Voilà: References removed.
Coronado is home to patriots. We honor our military. We support our Constitution. We believe in liberty and justice for all.
Far too many of our service members have given their lives fighting fascism and totalitarianism. Their oath of enlistment is to support our Constitution and protect our nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
The Christian Nationalism movement that Awaken is part of is hell-bent on replacing our democracy with an authoritarian autocracy.
It’s not a religion. It’s a radical political movement.
When everyone but [those you call] your own is demonic, there is no room for discussion or any daylight left between you for compromise, which undermines the very heart of a modern, democratic system. The effect is a wearing down, and sometimes, a tearing down of institutions and trust meant to hold people accountable to each other and to help moderate conflict before it breaks into violence. The destruction of our civic institutions, even when they need reform, will only give the hard right a free hand unencumbered by checks and balances to rewrite our social contract into a dystopian, Christian supremacist, and even neo-fascist future. Southern Poverty Law Center
More than 1100 people have now signed the “No Cult in Coronado” petition. Here are some of their latest comments:
There is no place for hate Cults and Grifters in our community, This town has legitimate churches serving the many religious beliefs which do well as community cornerstones, none is trying to steal property and wealth from neighbors while intoxicating them with hate. Awaken Church is known to capitalize from division, fear, and bigotry.
Awaken “church” is not a church but a cult. It is led by a pastor who spews hate and retribution. It has no place here in Coronado. Please help stop its spread here.
There is no need for this hateful cult to have a chapter here in Coronado. The brainwashing tactics are terrifying. I would hate to see any of my fellow neighbors fall victim.
Christianity is open, loving, and humble to everyone. Cults are divisive and demeaning to ‘others.’ Put that hate in the ocean and learn to be better.
This type of hateful division must stop. They are already in other SD communities and they are dangerous. Protect your residents. History will remember.
Never mistake Awaken for the Church of Jesus Christ.
You can go to the petition comments section and read what hundreds more have to say.
Resources:
A Concerned Community Comes Together
Christian Nationalism is not a Religion
Their Appetite is Insatiable, They Want it All
Christian Nationalism and Political Violence
What Happens When Church and State Merge? Look to Nazi Germany For Answers
The Bogus Historians Who Teach Evangelicals They Live in a Theocracy